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And it will be the most convenient method of arranging facts, to follow the silk through its various stages; from its state when imported, to its state when ready for the

wearer.

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Bundles of raw silk from abroad-not uncommonly weighted with rubbish, stones, or rouleaux of Chinese copper coin, to the loss of the buyer-are disposed of by auction. Purchases are made on behalf of the silk-dealers by sworn brokers;" and the regulation is, that these sworn brokers shall confine themselves solely to their functions. as agents. From a silk-manufacturer, however, we learn that they are currently understood to be themselves speculators in silk, either directly or by proxy; and that as thus personally interested in prices, they become faulty as agents. We give this, however, simply as a prevailing opinion; for the truth of which we do not vouch.

The silk bought by the London dealer, he sends into the manufacturing districts to be "thrown;" that is, to be made into thread fit for weaving. In the established form of bargain between the silk-dealer and the silkthrowster, we have a strange instance of an organized and recognized deception; which has seemingly grown out of a check on a previous deception. The throwing of silk is necessarily accompanied by some waste; from broken ends, knots, and fibres too weak to wind. This waste varies in different kinds of silks from 3 per cent. to 20 per cent.: the average being about 5 per cent. The percentage of waste being thus variable, it is obvious that in the absence of restraint, a dishonest silk-throwster might abstract a portion of the silk; and on returning the rest to the dealer, might plead that the great diminution in the weight had resulted from the large amount of loss in the process of throwing. Hence there has arisen a system, called "working on cost," which requires the throwster to send back to the dealer the same weight of silk which

he receives: the meaning of the phrase being, we presume, that whatever waste the throwster makes must be at his own cost. Now, as it is impossible to throw silk without some waste-at least 3 per cent., and ordinarily 5 per cent. -this arrangement necessitates a deception; if, indeed, that can be called a deception which is tacitly understood by all concerned. The silk has to be weighted. As much as is lost in throwing, has to be made up by some foreign substance introduced. Soap is largely used for this. In small quantity, soap is requisite to facilitate the running of the threads in the process of manufacture; and the quantity is readily increased. Sugar also is used. And by one means or other, the threads are made to absorb enough matter to produce the desired weight. To this system all silk-throwsters are obliged to succumb; and some of them carry it to a great extent, as a means of hiding either carelessness or something worse.

The next stage through which silk passes, is that of dyeing. Here, too, impositions have grown chronic and general. In times past, as we learn from a ribbon-manufacturer, the weighting by water was the chief dishonesty ; bundles returned from the dyer's, if not manifestly damp, still containing moisture enough to make up for a portion of the silk that had been kept back. And precautions had to be taken to escape losses thus entailed. Since then, however, there has arisen a method of deception which leaves this far behind-that of employing heavy dyes. The following details have been given us by a silk-throwster. It is now, he says, some five-and-thirty years since this method was commenced. Before that time, silk lost a considerable part of its weight in the copper. It appears that the ultimate fibre of silk is coated, in issuing from the spinneret of the silk-worm, with a film of varnish that is soluble in boiling water. In dyeing, therefore, this film, amounting to 25 per cent. of the entire weight of the silk,

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is dissolved off; and the silk is rendered that much lighter. So that originally, for every sixteen ounces of silk sent to the dyer's, only twelve ounces were returned. Gradually, however, by the use of heavy dyes, this result has been reversed. The silk now gains in weight; and sometimes to a scarcely credible extent. According to the requirement, silk is sent back from the dyer's of any weight from twelve ounces to the pound, up to forty ounces to the pound. The original pound of silk, instead of losing four ounces, as it naturally would, is actually, when certain black dyes are used, made to gain as much as twenty-four ounces! Instead of 25 per cent. lighter, it is returned 150 per cent. heavier-is weighted with 175 per cent. of foreign matter! Now as, during this stage of its manufacture, the transactions in silk are carried on by weight, it is manifest that in the introduction and development of this system, we have a long history of frauds. At present all in the trade are aware of it, and on their guard against it. Like other modes of adulteration, in becoming established and universal, it has ceased to be profitable to any one. But it still serves to indicate the morals of those concerned.

The thrown and dyed silk passes into the hands of the weaver; and here again we come upon dishonesties. Manufacturers of figured silks, sin against their fellows by stealing their patterns. The laws that have been found necessary to prevent this species of piracy, show that it has been carried to a great extent. Even now it is not prevented. One who has himself suffered from it, tells us that manufacturers still get each other's designs by bribing the workmen. In their dealings with "buyers," too, some manufacturers resort to deceptions: perhaps tempted to do so by the desire to compensate themselves for the heavy tax paid in treating, etc. Certain goods that have already been seen and declined by other buyers, are brought before

a subsequent one with artfully-devised appearances of secrecy; accompanied by professions that these goods have been specially reserved for his inspection: a manœuvre by which an unwary man is sometimes betrayed. That the process of production has its delusions, scarcely needs saying. In the ribbon-trade, for example, there is a practice called "top-ending;" that is, making the first three yards good, and the rest (which is covered when rolled up) of bad or loose texture-80 shutes to the inch instead of 108. And then there comes the issuing of imitations made of inferior materials-textile adulterations as we may call them. This practice of debasement, not an occasional but an established one, is carried to a surprising extent; and with surprising rapidity. Some new fabric, first sold at 7s. 6d. per yard, is supplanted by successive counterfeits; until at the end of eighteen months a semblance of it is selling at 4s. 3d. per yard. Nay, still greater depreciations of quality and price take placefrom 10s. down to 3s., and even 2s. per yard. Until at length the badness of these spurious fabrics becomes so conspicuous, that they are unsaleable; and there ensues a reaction, ending either in the reintroduction of the original fabric, or in the production of some novelty to supply its place.

Among our notes of mal-practices in trade, retail, wholesale, and manufacturing, we have many others that must be passed over. We cannot here enlarge on the not uncommon trick of using false trade-marks; or imitating another maker's wrappers; and so deluding purchasers. We must be satisfied with simply referring to the doings of apparently-reputable houses, which purchase goods known to be dishonestly obtained. And we are obliged to refrain from particularizing certain established arrangements, existing under cover of the highest respectability,

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which seem intended to facilitate these nefarious transactions. The frauds we have detailed are but samples of a state of things which it would take a volume to describe in full.

The further instances of trading-immorality which it seems desirable here to give, are those which carry with them a certain excuse; showing as they do how insensibly, and almost irresistibly, men are thrust into vicious practices. Always, no doubt, some utterly unconscientious trader is the first to introduce a new form of fraud. He is by-and-by followed by others who wear their moral codes but loosely. The more upright traders are continually tempted to adopt this questionable device which those around them are adopting. The greater the number who yield, and the more general and familiar the device becomes, the more difficult is it for the remainder to stand out against it. The pressure of competition upon them, becomes more and more severe. They have to fight an unequal battle: debarred as they are from one of the sources of profit which their antagonists possess. And they are finally almost compelled to follow the lead of the rest. Take for example what has happened in the candletrade. As all know, the commoner kinds of candles are sold in bunches, supposed to weigh a pound each. Originally, the nominal weight corresponded with the real weight. But at present the weight is habitually short, by an amount varying from half an ounce to two ounces -is sometimes depreciated 12 per cent.

If, now, an honest chandler offers to supply a retailer at, say six shillings for the dozen pounds, the answer he receives is " Oh, we get them for five-and-eightpence." "But mine," replies the chandler, "are of full weight; while those you buy at five-and-eightpence are not." "What does that matter to me ?" the retailer rejoins—“ a pound of candles is a pound of candles: my customers